Talk:Chad

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Contents 1 Romania's flag 2 American POV 3 Rally for Democracy and Liberty 4 Huh? 5 Chad - World bank friction 6 Corruption, governmental style and PQLI 7 New images 8 The "Arabic" name 9 mistake in this article 10 Rhupsced and canadian rockstars. 11 More vandalism

[edit] Romania's flag

What the hell is Romania's flag doing in the article? Is it a typo? [[User:NazismIsntCool|Nazism isn't cool]] 10:32, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Chad No, its not a typo. --El Froggo

'Identical flag' causes flap in Romania from BBC

[edit] American POV

I've removed the statement that Chad is "about three times the size of Texas". First of all, Chad (1,284,000 sq.km.) is not even twice as big as Texas (696,000 sq. km.). Secondly, only Americans will understand it. --BucInExile 12:40, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

UPDATE I have significantly updated this article in two areas: 1) History: If you visited the site to find out about the country's recent history, it was next to irrelevant. The separate 'history' article is interesting, but too long for reference. The civil war is extremely important to undrestanding the country's recent history. 2) Economy: The fact that Chad became an oil-producing nation in 2003 is absolutely vital.

I've updated the "Economy" section using various sources on the web (mainly World Bank and French-language media). This is a very big deal for the Chad government -- it means they have a large income stream that doesn't depend on taxing the peasantry. It will be interesting to see how things change on the ground and whether ordinary people start to see any benefits from oil.... Kahuzi 16:20, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Rally for Democracy and Liberty

Rally for Democracy and Liberty, or Movement for Democracy and Freedom, aren't those the rebels that the government of Chad is fighting in the civil war. And isn't suspected support from Sudan for these rebels the main reason for the war between Chad and Sudan? Shouldn't this be included?

[edit] Huh?

I don't know much at all about this subject but these lines don't seem to make any sense to me: In December, 1980 Libya occupied all of northern Chad, but Habré defeated Libyan troops and drove them out in November, 1981. In 1983, Qaddafi's troops occupied all of the country north of Koro Toro. Banes 17:19, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Chad - World bank friction

I wish there was more information on the new law. That way, one can read and have a rough idea where both World bank and Chad are coming from. At the moment, one if left in an infinate loop. Something like "The law madated that money can only be used for education or transportation" is better. "Development projects" is too fuzzy - could mean subsidizing some tycoons at which point, Chad would be heading to the right direction. It could mean investing on transportation infrustructure at which point Chad would be messing up Quote "Chad hopes to avoid the waste and corruption experienced in some other African oil-producing countries; as a condition of its assistance, the World Bank has insisted on a new law which requires that 80% of oil revenues will be spent on development projects. However, in January 2006 the World Back suspended its loan program to Chad, in reaction to the Chadian decision to "relax" laws governing the spending of oil money. Chad's response is that the World Bank is using Chad as a test subject for different management styles."

[edit] Corruption, governmental style and PQLI

Can somebody who knows about these things add some Economist Intelligence Unit or CIA handbook facts on what living in Chad is like? Is it a corrupt regime? Does it have the potential for great wealth but is badly managed (such as Ghana or Congo) or has it just been unfortunately marred by its geographical location ( as Mali has to a degree)? What is the Physical Quality of Life (PQLI) like for citizens? 193.129.65.37 09:47, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I just spent the past two years living in Chad and I'd be happy to add updates on this subject if anyone's interested. I can find some citations from the above-mentioned sources, and I know that there's a variety of other sources (Transparency International, which recently ranked Chad as the most corrupt country in the world, and the Foreign Policy magazine Failed States Index) on point, too. I'm not sure if that's viewed as too editorial -- since they don't cast a particularly flattering light on the Chadian government -- but, on the other hand, they're unbiased third-party sources and they confirm what I saw while there living au village in Chad, which is that life is quite hard for the citizens (the father of the family I lived with, for example, hasn't been paid for five months now; he's a teacher and should be paid by the government). Let me know if I should do some research on the topic. ConsiderPhlebas 1:22 PM, August 23, 2006

Thanks for the welcome messages. I haven't had much time lately to follow up on the message I posted above, but I will try to do so shortly and if there are any other articles on life in Chad or whatever that you'd like me to take a look at (from the perspective of someone who lived there recently and is still in touch with a number of Chadians), please let me know. I've updated the "Holidays in Chad" page to reflect information I compiled for the Peace Corps/Chad cross-cultural manual and which reflects the national holidays as best as I could ascertain them while in Chad in 2003-2005. Also, a link to the Transparency International report that ranked Chad tied with Bangladesh as the world's most corrupt country: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2005. If it's felt appropriate to include it, per the initial request above, can someone add it where it belongs? (I'm still figuring out where things should go and how to format them correctly!). Another link that might merit reference is the UNDP's Human Development Index (see hdr.undp.org and the reference at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778562.html; the latter ranks Chad as the fifth "least livable" country in the world). The HDI also has an article here on Wikipedia and a country list by ranking, which is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index and could be linked to in a discussion of Chad. I think both of those are worth adding into the main page somewhere. I saw the HDI listing in the info box, and maybe that's enough, but it seems like the text as currently written does not really reference either quality of life or corruption and, given Chad's extremely low world rankings in each, I think those are important to get a true sense of life in Chad. ConsiderPhlebas 12:06 a.m. October 1, 2006

[edit] New images

I've noticed several new images have been place on this page. At best, they need tidying up; at worst, they add nothing and should be removed. I can't even make one of them out properly. Haven't got time to sort it out now (it's getting late), I'd welcome other views (or I might just delete the lot if I have time tomorrow). Kahuzi 22:55, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd support deleating the lot, for exactly the reasons you said. Also it's time to make more concise the history section, making it shorter; but I can deal with that section. And BTW, great idea an article on Françoise Claustre; I've also long been thinking of writing an article on the Claustre affair, but never seemed to find time.--Aldux 23:15, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I've moved one image to the History of Chad page, where I think it's more relevant. The other two (Chadian girls) look much better on my PC at work than they did last night, at home, so I'll leave them (I now think they do add something to that section). Support your idea for revising the history section on the main page -- it should be a better summary of "History of Chad", whereas at the moment, it's too heavy on some recent stuff and misses other periods altogether. Kahuzi 08:01, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Re Claustre, I was in Africa at the time and met some of the people involved, so it was easier for me. There are one or two other characters mentioned who don't have pages -- we should decide which ones are sufficiently notable to merit a page (Pierre Galopin?)and which "red" links should be removed (e.g Christophe Staewen, Marc Combe). Kahuzi 08:01, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I hope you don't disagree, but I removed the image also from History of Chad, as it was a work of immagination of the editor. Regarding the images, maby we could just select one of the two, to not full with too much images a small section; but I don't think it's very important, and won't insist. As for Claustre, Galopin is important enough to deserve a biog.; Combe was moderately important, as number two, I believe, of the MRA, and maybe relevant enough for an article (but I'm not sure); while Staewen does not seem to have any importance out of his involvement in the affair. How do you see it?--Aldux 14:02, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Re removal of image from History of Chad -- no problem. On the others:

• Maps - there are too many. I'd delete the first satellite image and replace it with the second, which gives a clearer idea of the country's geography and climate. I'd also delete the "Aozou strip" map and move it to "History", if it's not there already, and keep the other map
• Portraits - Picture of Idriss Déby to illustrate "Politics" is fine. I'd keep the pictures of the two girls in "Culture" but I do recognise that we ought to be able to find something better.

Kahuzi 17:04, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

What kind of "better" portraits are you looking for? Specific pictures of figures from Chadian history? Or just general pictures of Chadians and/or life au Tchad? I have plenty of the latter I'd be happy to share if appropriate (though some may be better fits for other articles, like the "Transportation in Chad" article, for example).ConsiderPhlebas 12:06 AM, October 1, 2006

I find it interesting that both of the pictures of the Chadian girls show the girls without headscarves. Not to open up a can of politically correct worms or anything, but during my two years in Chad, girls (and definitely women) from both the Muslim and Christian traditions rarely went out in public without a headscarf of some sort (unless it was Women's Day, or in N'Djamena or there was some other similarly "liberated" reason behind it). If we're looking to be representative, it seems maybe we should show at least one picture with a scarf or headwrap on. ConsiderPhlebas 20:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Re Galopin; I'll put him on my "To do" list (I think there's enough material to do a stub, at least). Not sure about Combe, though, and I think we should remove the link from Staewen. Kahuzi 17:04, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The "Arabic" name

At the beginning of the article, the name Chad is also spelt in Arabic: Chad (Arabic:تشاد , Tašād; etc... Now, the arabic spelling is but a way of writing the sound ch (tch") in a writing system which has not it (using t + š). The romanicized form Tašād is wrong. It refers to the rules of "Classical Arabic" (which rule out words beginning with a consonantal cluster), but this name does not belong to classical Arabic. IMHO it shouldn't be romanicized. If we feel we NEED to romanicize it, we should simply spell: Tšad. --Vermondo 10:37, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Ciao Vermondo, nice to see you here, I'm a great admirer of your work on the Italian wiki. Regarding the name the official language of Chad is, I believe, classical Arabic, and not Chadian Arabic. So shouldn't the romanicized form reflect this? Anyways, I'm not an expert, so I'll use Tšad as proposed.--Aldux 14:48, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] mistake in this article

someone has used the phrase mentally retarded, this should be deleted as soon as possible by someone who can edit this page

• Can't find the phrase, so assume this has been corrected (during various attempts to revert vansdalism?) Kahuzi 14:12, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rhupsced and canadian rockstars.

Reference to the renaming of this country in honour of a Canadian rock star, and referring to this country's previous name "Rhupsced" must be some body's idea of a joke. It ain't funny. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 210.86.45.250 (talk) 13:45, 26 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] More vandalism

Second sentence of "History" section reads: "Relatively weak local kingdoms which developed gradually in the region were later overtaken by the larger and more powerful Chad Paquette." I assume this is the result of vandalism but not sure what it should say. Can someone correct it please? Kahuzi 14:11, 13 March 2007 (UTC)